A study conducted by Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) and research partners at North Carolina State University and The Ohio State University offers fresh insight into how first-year college students think about and experience religious diversity on campuses across the United States.
The Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) found that 85 percent of first-year students arrived on campus expecting the climate to be welcoming to diverse religious and nonreligious perspectives. However, by the end of the year, the same students reported “perceiving their campus to be less welcoming” than expected, especially for peers holding minority worldviews.
“Compared to the 12 months prior to arriving on campus, declines in interfaith engagement are common in the first year of college,” said Dr. Alyssa Rockenbach, professor of higher education at North Carolina State University. “Turning the tide on trends in the first year will require closely attending to campus climate, creating space for students of diverse worldview identities, inspiring productive and challenging encounters across difference, encouraging interfaith friendship formation and cultivating interreligious literacy.”
Conducted between 2015 and 2016, the survey analyzed responses from 7,194 students at 122 colleges and universities. Variations in responses for religious groups showed that on arrival, students believed their campuses to be more welcoming to atheists (82 percent), Evangelical Christians (79 percent) and Jews (78 percent), and less welcoming for Buddhists (73 percent), Hindus (73 percent), Muslims (70 percent) and Latter-day Saints/Mormons (69 percent).
Campus educators should keep in mind “potential gaps between expectations and experiences,” the report said. “The disconnect between expectations and experiences could be disillusioning for students and potentially limit their social integration into the campus community, resulting in repercussions for collegiate success.”
While survey findings indicate few “overt indicators of religious prejudice,” researchers point out that underlying “insidious discriminatory practices” are more common on college campuses.
A slight majority of students – 53 percent – feel that “people on this campus interact most often with others of their same worldview,” leading to subtle instances of divisiveness on campus. This tendency for students to self-segregate is combined with them feeling pressured or coerced to “change their worldview” (52 percent); “listen to others’ perspectives when they didn’t want to hear about them” (61 percent); or “keep their worldview to themselves” (62 percent).
